"You mama-san!"
Posted on 05/04/2008 5:10:28 PM PDT by Reaganesque
...can a katana blade REALLY cut through a bullet as portrayed in many anime and video games?
Can a katana blade cut through a bullet fired from a .50 cal machine gun?
“When I was little, my father was famous. He was the greatest Samurai in the empire, and he was the Shogun’s decapitator. He cut off the heads of 131 lords for the Shogun. He wasn’t scared of the Shogun, but the Shogun was scared of him.”
Yes, but its very entertaining "junk" science. :-)
I have to admit, I have never asked myself if a katana could split a 9mm or 50 cal bullet.
>> respectful bow to Mistah Fitty-Cal-San. <<
Imagine some moose limb in Iraq taking cover behind the cinder block walls like the ones used here for the backstop.
Still, the opportunity to encounter some punk and just SAY the words (while hiding 45 ACP in SOB holster rig): In the END...THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE! That would be priceless.
Then to look old chuckie schumer in the eye while nonverbally daring him to say something anti gun.
I like the show. I wish I was on it.
So many toys to play with.
GH.......LOL....Been there done that........my tool was a Barrett 82A1 back when men were men and sheep were afraid in my EOD teams using the rafuas HE 50BMG rounds designed for small munitions disruption. That round makes API look weak in many ways......:o)
Ma Deuce is queen of the battlefield IMO.
TDJ.......impressive indeed !
Ya’ll stay safe !
I can't afford a real Japanese sword, even a modern one, so I bought a pretty good Chinese copy from Paul Chen. It is 8260 spring steel with a real hamon.
Lets try that again with DU .50 BMG
They should have had this guy do it.
Only six rounds?
Miyamoto Musashi would have stood downrange and split them all.
I got interested Japanese swords, because I discovered they are superior to any of the European swords. The materials engineering is amazing for a pre-industrial society.
The secret of the metallurgy is the laminated structure. The sword consists of an inner core of softer, lower carbon steel, which imparts toughness and flexibility to the blade. The jacket and edge are of high carbon steel, which allows the razor edge, but is too brittle to be useful for complete fabrication of a blade.
The blade begins by folding layers of higher carbon steel from 10 to 16 times. The a core of lower carbon steel is inserted into a V that has been forged into the jacket steel. The blade is then hand forged to rough shape, and then filed to final demensions
The blade blank is coated with clay. The layer of clay is thin at the edge and thick for the back of the blade. The blade is then heated in the forge to a specific temperature, actually eye-balled by the sword-smith. The hot sword is then plunged into water.
The blade cools rapidly at the edge, but more slowly at the back of the blade. The result is a very hard edge, but a softer, more resilient back of the blade. The softer back shrinks more, on cooling. The result is the curved shape of the katana.
One of the most beautiful aspect of the sword is the hamon, the boundary between the softer back and the hard edge. The hamon becomes apparent with the final polishing of the blade.
A limited number of katanas and other swords are being made in the tradional manner (in Japan). The production is strictly controlled by the government, to assure the quality of the blades. These blades are museum quality, they are not intended for competitions, even though they are razor sharp. They are simply too expensive, well over $10,000 per blade. After all, they take at least 6 months to build.
Competitors buy lower priced blades, many of which are mass produced. They are still razor sharp and quite lethal. Some blades are of folded construction, with differential hardening (similar to the real Japanese swords).
Others are through hardened monosteel construction. The most durable may well be the monosteel beaters made by Cheness Cutlery, the ones made of 9260 spring steel. They will certainly cut every bit as well as the authentic folded blades.
I watched a program on one of the cable channels not too long ago about how a traditional Japanese sword is/was made. It was absolutely fascinating! It truly is more art than a manufacturing process.
I was amazed the rounds that did hit cut in half vs deflected. The round that did snap it hit a flat spot from a previous round...
I got a kick out of the lil’ japaneese guy’s body language when his sword did let go lol...
A real hoot was that they hit that blade with the M2.......at all !
Too cool !
The Japanese Swords are truly art.
Now let's try a few other .50 rounds: the cartridge, caliber .50, Ball, Spotter-Tracer, M48A1 for the M8C spotter rifle atop M40A1 recoilless rifles comes to mind, as do a few for the M2 Browning MG and Barrett AM rifles, the cartridge, cal..50, Saboted Light Armor Penetrator-Tracer (SLAP-T), M962 and cal. .50: Armor Piercing Incendiary (API), MK 211 MOD 0 *Raufoss* rounds ought to be pretty spectacular.
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